How Utilities Are Using AI for Grid Reliability | Brad Bowness, Systems With Intelligence

Annual substation inspections made sense in 1985. In 2026, the grid can’t afford to wait.

At the 2026 IEEE PES T&D Show, Alan Ross of APC Media sat down with Brad Bowness of Systems with Intelligence (SWI) to discuss why continuous, touchless thermal and visual monitoring is rapidly replacing the old model of quarterly and semi-annual site inspections — and how AI and computer vision are turning substation cameras into a 24/7 engineering team.

With utilities stretched thin and crews increasingly unable to reach sites on demand, SWI’s platform delivers the thermal intelligence and visual inspection capability utilities need — without ever setting foot in the yard.

In this episode:

• Why time-based maintenance is failing modern utilities — and what replaces it
• 15 years of continuous thermal monitoring across IOUs, munis & co-ops worldwide
• How SWI identifies hotspots under specific load & weather conditions — in real time
• Remote virtual walkthroughs: inspect gauges, oil levels & leaks from the office
• AI-powered computer vision: automatically digitizing analog gauges & detecting oil levels
• Thermal + visual in one platform: not an either/or — it’s a force multiplier
• The future of automated virtual inspection & condition-based asset management

Guest: Brad Bowness, Systems with Intelligence
Host: Alan Ross, Managing Editor, APC Media
Filmed at: IEEE PES T&D 2026